Dragon Quest IV (DS)

[Atreides]

Anyone else planning on picking this up tomorrow? Myself I was never really a huge Dragon Quest fan until after the SquareEnix merger and then playing Dragon Quest 8. I though DQ8 was a phenomenal game, a really true jRPG and an amazing experience. Apparently the series is huge in japan, almost as big as FF, but my attempts to go back and play the previous DQ games have all failed.

DQ4 looks really neat though, a really similar style to DQ8 in terms of interface/graphics. I'm kinda wary of the divergent storylines (you play several characters through 'chapters' and they only converge at the end), but I need something good and RPGish for DS now that I'm semi-done with FFIV.

Anyone else play the DS version/old version? How good is the gameplay/story? Is the multiple party/character thing weird? How long is the game? I guess I'll play for a while tomorrow and post my impressions.

[Pharaun]

I got the Japanese DS version back when it came out because I'm a huge DQ fan. They've actually made several changes from the orignal NES version that help it out a lot. In the original once you got to the last chapter you could only directly control the hero and then just give general AI commands to the other characters (full attack, defend, use a little mp, use no mp, etc). In this new version they changed it so you can actually control all the characters which is a big improvement.

Gameplay wise it's very similar to what you saw in DQ8 but obviously downgraded. The DQ series has always been old school hardcore, so don't expect anything too deep and/or revolutionary.

The story is fairly typical fantasy stuff, again nothing too deep and/or revolutionary, but it's well presented and enjoyable. As for the length, looking at my save file I beat the game in 49 hours 55 minutes, but I'm a bit of a leveling whore and spent a while doing that. There's also some additional stuff that was possibly in the ps1 remake (not sure since I never played that version) and it looks like it adds a fair amount on to the game. I haven't tried it since my Japanese is only so so (cursed kanji why can't I remember more of you) and I'm not quite sure where to go and what to do on that part.

tl;dr If you like old school rpgs get it, if you think anything older than FFVII is ancient and outdated the stay far far away. I know I'll be getting my copy tomorrow.

[Mugmug]

I'm picking it up tomorrow.

DQ is bigger in Japan than Final Fantasy I'm pretty sure. I know it used to be a little whole back and Dragon Quest 7 is second biggest selling RPG of all time in Japan, next to Pokemon (Damn Pokemon!)

I'm really pissed off with what they did to the NA and European releases.

They took out "Party Chat", which is a feature specifically made for the DS version. This was in DQ7 and 8 as well, but it's lets you talk to your party members, giving them some much needed character development. They were basically to lazy to translate it all, and had over 7 months to do it but didn't.

For the full scoop read: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genme...topic=45434121

So yeah, NE/EU versions got dumbed down due to laziness, but DQ4 is still a solid game. Liked the NES version a lot. I'm mostly waiting for V and VI.

[Kyo]

For those buying it their giving away a 10 buck gift when you buy it at Circuit City.

[Yuri-G]

Looking forward to it, though not as much as Kirby Super Star next week.

[Yuri-G]

I think they really overdid it with the accents, but hopefully the Irish accent in the first chapter is the worst of them. Seriously though, "ken?" "Bairn?" "Youse?" Hmm, that's a little much for me.

[Mugmug]

Love the game so far, but I'd have to agree.

The accents in chapter 1 are HORRID. It's Scottish and it doesn't translate well without voice acting.

Oh well, the rest of the game isn't like this (I hear... and I hope)

[Yuri-G]

Love the game so far, but I'd have to agree.

The accents in chapter 1 are HORRID. It's Scottish and it doesn't translate well without voice acting.

Oh well, the rest of the game isn't like this (I hear... and I hope)

Yeah, it would be a lot better if it wasn't all text-based dialogue, but it is and it's annoying to read. I heard a lot of the game is like that but different areas have different accents and the Scottish one is the most annoying, let's hope that's right.

As far as the game itself goes, I finally got a chance to dig in during a lull at work today, and it's pretty much standard DQ fare (which I love). It seemed a bit too easy at first, but after one battle in the well where you get Healie, I was dead, which was oddly pleasing. Now I'm grinding my ass off for some snazzy weapons and armor before I go back down there and show that Mad Mole what's up.

[Yuri-G]

Thoughts so far:
- The accents range from cute/tolerable to incredibly annoying. Reading the dialogue in the second chapter is akin to a dying cat scratching its nails across a chalkboard that resides entirely in your mind. It's painful, is my point. I did get used to the first chapter's Scottish accent, but this faux-Russian b.s. is really grinding on my nerves.
- The difficulty is definitely lowered, not a ton, but lowered nonetheless. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like the XP gain has been increased. I also have to wonder if some of the enemy stats and attacks were changed; I remember the first boss being a pain in the ass when I played as kid but now he can barely touch me. His attacks were doing 1-5 damage, that's pathetic.

All in all it's a cool game but I wish they would have updated it less. I would've been happy with a simple graphical overhaul and the addition of a few mini-quests like tinymedals.

[MayorBee]

Play the game at least to chapter 3 and beyond, it's not nearly as accent heavy and the dialog gets a lot better. But to be honest, I've never really played old school Dragon Quest games for the wonderful dialog or plot.

[Lujei]

I just recently finished it and loved it. The new translations of spells are a bit weird, though I adored the accents (I'm probably the only one). Sadly, party chat is gone, and therefore most of the character development.

The best part was the merchant's joke about trying to take over a country for its oil.

[Kenai]

Finished it two days ago. Some of the changes were odd (did so many people have to have bizzarre accents? REALLY?), but some changes, like Follow Orders and increased gold drops, were quite nice. It was great to play again, now I'm really hype for 5 and 6. :Q

[Yuri-G]

How did you people play so fast? I'm on chapter 3, grinding for gold/XP because I got a Cautery Sword in the weapon shop and don't want to have to sell it. Torneko's increased drop rate kicks some serious ass, I have to say.

[Kenai]

Most of the chapters pre-5 were only 2-3 hours at most for me since I'd gone through most of it before. I even took a little longer than normal in Taloon's to get extra steel broadswords for later money. Then, you head to the Metabble (or whatever they call that monster) and Metal King Slime areas, get some sick levels in no time, gather up the Zenith armor and Liquid Metal sword, and maybe some Mini Medal gathering. No sweat, especially if you stick with 4 characters only since there's less gear needed (though I don't recommend that for first-timers).

[Lujei]

How did you people play so fast? I'm on chapter 3, grinding for gold/XP because I got a Cautery Sword in the weapon shop and don't want to have to sell it. Torneko's increased drop rate kicks some serious ass, I have to say.

You don't have to grind much for the Gold in Chapter 3, just buy the most expensive armor from Endor (it should be Iron Apron, for 1,500) and sell it to the man in the castle in Ballymoral for anything above 1,800 (ideally, you'll want it to sell for 2,000 or so, but that takes a lot of cancelling).

[Firedemon]

For those of you who played the original, how close is the remake to it? Having a remake of this game really makes me want to get a DS now. Time to boot up the NES again I guess.

[Pharaun]

If you've played any of SE remakes of older games you know what to expect. They did make a few positve changes, see my post earlier in this thread for a rundown of them.

[Firedemon]

Oh shit you can actually control your party members in chapter 5 now, that's badass right there. Having Cristo cast Defeat every other turn was such a pain in the ass. I do like how they're making all these remakes of games. It's giving the new-school gamers a taste of old-school.